Give Better Oral Presentations Step 2 and 3

Here are the next two steps of the preparation for oral presentation series.

After determining the purpose of your presentation, you should:

Step 2. Clearly Define your Audience

A message is intended to be delivered to its intended audience. Clearly defining your target audience is part of having a clear purpose to your presentation.

Knowing your target audience will allow you to achieve better rapport with the audience. This is achieved by being able to prepare a speech specially tailored to their needs and experience.

Some factors to consider when considering your audience include;
- The level of experience and expertise that the audience has with the subject matter.
- The nature of the audience, whether are they heterogeneous or homogeneous?
- The level of fatigue of the audience, how tired will they be?
- The mood of the audience. Serious? Or relaxed?


Step 3. Research your Topic

In this step, the objective is to get as familiar with the speech topic as possible. Take this opportunity and time to seek information about the topic that will be relevant to your target audience. Seek to supplement your speech with evidence, facts and quotes to provide more concreteness and substance to the message.

Give Better Oral Presentations Step 4 and 5